Official: Bibles Can Be Sent to Troops

Bibles and other religious materials can be sent by family members to servicemen and women serving in the Middle East, a top postal official stressed Thursday.

Postal Vice President Azeezaly Jaffer's comments came after a report that a North Carolina man was told by a postal clerk that he could not send a book of Bible verses to his son, serving in Kuwait, because of regulations against sending non-Islamic materials to Middle Eastern countries.

"The regulation is intended for mass mailings, but there is nothing precluding a family member from sending a Bible or Torah or Quran or whatever the case may be to a soldier that is stationed there," Jaffer said.

Materials mailed to service members overseas are handled by the Military Postal Service Agency, which delivers them to soldiers in the field.

At the Pentagon, Lt. Commander Don Soule agreed that there is no restriction against a family member sending religious materials for the personal use of a service member. The restriction is against mass mailings of material to be distributed, he said.

Many Islamic countries restrict what can be sent there and a postal regulation for military mail going to those countries lists religious materials contrary to the Islamic faith or depicting nude or seminude persons, pornographic or sexual items or nonauthorized political materials.